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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23419951">The night that the dead dawned on us</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ihatewriting/pseuds/Ihatewriting'>Ihatewriting</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead (1968)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:22:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,878</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23419951</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ihatewriting/pseuds/Ihatewriting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A re-imagining of the first ten minutes of George A. Romero's 1978 classic "Dawn of the dead". Romero's zombie remains my favorite type of zombie as they themselves are not that dangerous, but the fact that the society back then just had absolutely no idea what a zombie is, and the fact that the general culture is a lot less sensitive and wholesome in a way, that the phenomenon of dead people coming back alive is so terrifying, it causes complete and utter societal chaos and egregious incompetence in regards to how the authority handles the situation. Which is quite fitting right now don't you think?<br/>Some lines are taken directly from the movies because I just love them so much.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The night that the dead dawned on us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 16th, 1967 Cincinnati </p><p> </p><p>The wall was solid. Of course it was, the last time this place is rejuvenated was six months ago, with some bearded man hired by the manager to repaint the office’s wall. He also painted the hallway red somehow, and no one in the office seemed to know who gave him the permission to do, but nevertheless, it was done, and for days after the entire building reeked of shoddy undried paint. Especially the hallway paint, smelt just like rotten corpses, as the blood-red undried liquid dripped down from the top, with pulsating sinew exposed in the thin but admittedly chilling air. She woke up in horror, then saw Simon Jorah, the production assistant with a spec thicker than the milk bottle’s bottom looking straight at her, as she slowly stood up, the assistant shoved a bunch of paper in her hands. “Wait what is…” “Shut it! April is gone, we need someone to take control! Go talk to George!” “Wait where did April go…?” “I don’t know!” The assistant rushed to the stairs leading down to the set, disappeared into the vociferous crowd, of which was gathered around the talk show host and Doc Feldman, as the two were going at each other in stentorian manners. She walked to the director’s studio room which was thronged with people, where George, their program director, was sitting in front of the control broad. She looked up to the screen, seeing the two people arguing on the air. “...we do not listen! We are dealing with something we have never seen before, yet people do not listen and they didn’t listen for the last three weeks!” “People are not buying what you are saying, and it is hard enough for us to believe what the President had said without you coming in here…” “It’s a fact! It’s THE FACT…” “EXCUSE ME! IT IS HARD ENOUGH TO BELIEVE without you coming in here spouting words about giving up all human rights of the citizens…” “Human rights? You are not running a talk show, Mr. Burman. THEY ARE DEAD AND THEY ARE COMING AT US! Treating this without irrational emotion would only worsen the situation...” George turned back and saw her standing there. “Hey! Brandon! We need the list of rescue stations!” “It was on the air no?” The director assistant chimed in: “The list was not accurate, the Berkeley and South Nashville ones are inactive since yesterday.” “How long we have left it on the air?” “For the last sixteen hours.” “Brandon we need another list! Who the fuck is on camera two? Who the fuck handles cam two, a blind man!?” She swam through the ever chaotic crowd and ran out, as the hallway was also thronged with people, she weaseled her way into the back room. “Charlie. I need another list.” Charlie shoved her a piece of paper. “The one in Berkeley is not active.” She skimmed through it and realized. “This is the list we got. They haven’t had an update for a day now, Washington is having a hard time.” Charlie muttered, locking his gaze on the screen. “We can’t send people to these places?” “That is all we got.” On the hallway, the graphic coordinator whom Brandon was not familiar with, and the gaffer was standing there each with a cig in their hand. “Listen! LISTEN! I can’t put up anything if I don’t have anything…” “What do you mean? Didn’t Feldman said the new guideline had been…” “There is no new guideline I saw! Go down there and drag that Jew up here and explain what the fuck guideline was released! The white house hasn’t spoken since yesterday at noon… Brandon! BRANDON! Where the fuck are you going?” “The boardroom and FUCK YOU JOHN!” She returned to the crowded room and handed the paper to George where George, who was screaming at his assistant sitting next to him to roll the rescue station on-screen, extremely irritated by Brandon’s arrival threw the paper to his assistant, whom in terms just stood up and screamed: “Leslie!” then left her post without noticing anyone but at this point, nobody had the vigor to care anymore. Leslie sauntered to them, sat down and started typing the stations. “Leave out Berkeley.” Brandon said while looking up to the screen, where the show on air continued; “Do you believe the dead…” “I am not sure what to believe…” “DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE DEAD ARE COMING BACK?” “I am not sure what to believe doctor! All I have is your words!”</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>“Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people that are dead get up and kill!”</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>“There is no way the station in Carson City is still running. The thing’s radio went down four days ago, this list is not accurate either.” Leslie said while notwithstanding typing out the stations to roll on the screen. Brandon, acerbate, got to the control room. The head technician was there along with the sound director, both of which was scrambling to get the audio right. “Lenard! Kill the stations.” “But Martin said he wants it on the air all the…” “Kill it! Tell Martin to see me!” She yelled to make sure her voice didn’t get drown out by the riotous surroundings and left. The technician pounded the wall in utter anger then settled back to his chair and turned off the rolling subtitles of the locations of rescue stations. Brandon returned, as disorder started to take a hold of the entire set while the show still continued; “Just tell us the fact doctor, what is the solution to all these?” “It is not domestic terrorism as we had stated multiple times on the press conferences. It is related to the viral outbreak back in Seattle in late August. The dead, all recently deceased, so long as the brain was not removed from the body, will raise up and attack the living…” His voice was drowned out by the acerbate crowd, “The citizen must turn in their dead bodies to be disposed of by the national guard and local authorities! For the districts that had lost contact, their sheriff will be their highest in command. All citizens must seek out for rescue spot and must not remain in private residences no matter how safe or well-stocked! All essential industry will be nationalized to ensure their running, all citizens are advised to keep their proof of properties with them, and they must abandon all their private residence immediately to seek refuge…” The crowd expectedly soared, as most of them being the crew members had given up on maintaining the program instead chose to yell out their protest with indignant insults and vociferous noises. Most people were simply enraged by the doctor’s words, while others were scrambling to retreat. Brandon walked down to the set, and George's bellow could be heard from behind: “The camera two is down you dickhead!” She saw the camera completely unoccupied and unmanaged, so she rushed there to point it back in place. Martin, the executive producer stormed into the control, with the visible flame of rage on his expression: “Who the fuck cut the banner? Who the fuck did it without my fucking permission?” The head technician was already long gone, as only the audio director and the assistant sitting there. Martin took the mic and yelled right down to the people on the set: “Who killed those banners?” Brandon, being handed a mic as well, yelled back: “Nobody, I killed them!” The assistant cried: “You two are on the air!” “What the fuck is going on?” The host noticed it as well, immediately gestured the operator to roll ads, yet the operator was not there either, and the only ads they had right now was simply the emergency broadcast of the white house. “If the rescue stations are not on-air every minute people will tune out!” Martin screamed. Brandon, enraged, yelled back: “Do you want to send people to death by putting them to inoperative rescue station?” “I want the stations to be on the air all the time! On the time before we will be pulled off the air!” “Tell him to shut the fuck up!” The host stood up and yelled, kept gesturing Martin to sit down and shut his mic off, yet Martin was too hysterical to notice him. “The motherfucker don’t even know he is on air!” The assistant, finally fed up, grabbed her coat, “Dane let’s just go.” Dane, the sound director, waiting for this moment for the entire night, immediately bolted out of his seat and both headed straight to the exit. “Hey, where the fuck are you guys going? Dane get back to the council!” He rushed to the exit seeing the two stepping out right next to a guard. “Officer! Stop those men from leaving the building!” Martin screamed, but the officer kind of just shrugged, and the two disappeared, “Dane get back to the console!” No reply, so he rushed back to the control room which was now thronged with people that had not a single idea how to control anything, just like him, but he got the authority at least so he yelled back into the mic: “Someone down there gets up and operate the thing!” “He is on the air! Tell him to shut up!” The host screamed, while the doctor froze in his seat completely overwhelmed by the chaos, as the crew already starting to dismantle the entire set, even when the camera was rolling. “Now Doctor, tell us more facts.”</p><p> </p><p><em> “ </em> <b> <em>They kill. They eat. They are growing too rapidly, and if we don’t contain the situation, things could only get worse.”</em> </b></p><p> </p><p>“Contain? How to contain? We don’t know how to contain!” “We do know! We operate on what we do know, which is that the dead bodies of any kind that had recently deceased must be exterminated by separating the head from the body! People must seek shelter immediately!” “What about our rights! The government had lifted the Miranda Warning, and now we are being told to give up our private residence…” “Rights? Mr. Burman they are dead! They are dead! Pittsburg had already made martial laws in place as in all other major cities in the US…” Someone threw a handful of files at the doctor in protest, who threw back in anger while yelling out loud: “Asshole!” Someone grabbed Brandon from behind.</p><p>“Brandon!” </p><p>“Steve! I can’t believe…”</p><p>“Brandon! We need to go! The truck is right outside! Come down in five!”</p><p>“But Steve we can’t just leave…”</p><p>“Yes we can! We need to go! The east Westwood project right now is filled with those things. The SWAT team is dealing with it but we can not put our hopes there! We need to go! Don’t let me come for you!” He then zoomed out the building. </p><p>“Go ahead.” </p><p>Startled by the voice, Brandon turned back and saw the camera operator standing right behind her, obviously having heard their conversation. </p><p>“Go ahead, we will be off the air by midnight anyway. The emergency network is taking over.” He made an exhaustive smile while looking at the screen. “Our responsibility is finished.”</p>
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